| Translator's Preface | 1 |
| "Mirrors and Masks: The Life and Poetic Works of Anna Akhmatova" | 7 |
| from Evening | |
| In Tsarskoye Selo | |
| 1. | "They're leading the horses..." | 29 |
| 2. | "...And there's my marble double..." | 31 |
| 3. | "A dark-skinned youth wandered..." | 31 |
| "Under her dark veil she wrung her hands..." | 33 |
| "The heart's memory of the sun grows faint..." | 35 |
| The Song of the Last Meeting | 37 |
| "When you're drunk it's so much fun..." | 39 |
| The Gray-Eyed King | 41 |
| He loved... | 43 |
| "The park was filled with light mist..." | 45 |
| "And when we had cursed each other..." | 47 |
| "At the new moon he abandoned me..." | 49 |
| from Rosary | |
| Outing | 51 |
| "We are all carousers and loose women here..." | 53 |
| "How many demands the beloved can make!" | 55 |
| "We met for the last time..." | 57 |
| "It drags on forever--this heavy, amber day!" | 59 |
| "I've learned to live simply, wisely..." | 61 |
| Confession | 63 |
| "Under the icon, a threadbare rug..." | 65 |
| The Guest | 67 |
| from White Flock | |
| Solitude | 69 |
| "They are flying, they are still on their way..." | 71 |
| "There is a sacred boundary between those who are close..." | 73 |
| "For us to lose freshness of words..." | 75 |
| "Somewhere there is a simple life..." | 77 |
| July 1914 | |
| 1. | "It smells of burning..." | 79 |
| 2. | "The sweet smell of juniper..." | 81 |
| In Memoriam, July 19, 1914 | 83 |
| "I don't know if you're living or dead..." | 85 |
| "The twenty-first. Night. Monday..." | 87 |
| "I dream of him less often now, thank God..." | 89 |
| "How I love, how I loved to look..." | 91 |
| from Plantain | |
| "I am listening to the orioles' ever mournful voice..." | 93 |
| "Now no one will listen to songs..." | 95 |
| "Over the snowdrift's hard crust..." | 97 |
| "And when in suicidal anguish..." | 99 |
| from Anno Domini Mcmxxi | |
| Petrograd, 1919 | 101 |
| "I am not with those who abandoned their land..." | 103 |
| "Submissive to you? You're out of your mind!" | 105 |
| "He whispers: 'I'm not sorry..." | 107 |
| Lot's Wife | 109 |
| Michal | 111 |
| "Everything has been plundered..." | 113 |
| "Terror, fingering things in the dark..." | 115 |
| "Today is the nameday of Our Lady of Smolensk..." | 117 |
| Apparition | 119 |
| from Reed | |
| "I hid my heart from you..." | 121 |
| The Poet | 123 |
| Voronezh | 127 |
| "Wild honey smells like freedom..." | 129 |
| Requiem | 131 |
| Cleopatra | 153 |
| Dante | 155 |
| The Last Toast | 157 |
| Mayakovsky in 1913 | 159 |
| from Seventh Book | |
| "The first lighthouse flashed over the jetty..." | 161 |
| Creation | 163 |
| "I don't need martial hosts arrayed in odes..." | 165 |
| "Probably much still remains..." | 165 |
| To the Memory of a Friend | 167 |
| "I haven't been here for seven hundred years..." | 169 |
| "When the moon lies like a slice of Chardush melon..." | 171 |
| "Those lynx eyes of yours, Asia..." | 173 |
| Cinque | |
| 1. | "As if on the rim of a cloud..." | 175 |
| 2. | "Sounds die away in the ether..." | 177 |
| 3. | "For so long I hated..." | 177 |
| 4. | "You know yourself that I'm not going to celebrate..." | 179 |
| 5. | "We hadn't breathed the poppies' somnolence..." | 179 |
| The Burnt Notebook | 181 |
| "You invented me. There is no such earthly being..." | 183 |
| "Don't be afraid--I can still portray..." | 185 |
| One More Toast | 187 |
| from Odd Number | |
| Seaside Sonnet | 189 |
| The Last One | 191 |
| Native Land | 193 |
| The Last Rose | 195 |
| To the Memory of V.S. Sreznevskaya | 197 |
| Northern Elegies | 199 |
| Uncollected Poems and Fragments | |
| 1904-1917 | |
| "In the corner an old man resembling a ram..." | 221 |
| "Some great misfortune happened to me here..." | 223 |
| "You, the leader, standing by the spring..." | 225 |
| White Night | 227 |
| 1919-1941 | |
| "In the city of the gatekeeper of paradise..." | 229 |
| "It would be so easy to abandon this life..." | 231 |
| "Why did you poison the water..." | 233 |
| Imitation from the Armenian | 235 |
| To the Memory of M.B. | 237 |
| Belated Reply | 239 |
| 1941-May 1945 | |
| "De profundis... My generation tasted little honey..." | 241 |
| September 1945-1956 | |
| "I wouldn't have known how the quince tree blossoms..." | 243 |
| "Everyone left and no one returned..." | 245 |
| Festive Song | 247 |
| "Others go off with their loved ones..." | 249 |
| 1957-1966 | |
| "They will forget?--How astonishing!" | 251 |
| "I was captivated by mistake..." | 253 |
| Creation | 255 |
| "You are to live, but I, not very much longer..." | 257 |
| "These praises for me are not due to rank..." | 259 |
| Listening to Singing | 261 |
| The Publication of a Book | 263 |
| The North | 265 |
| Christmastime (December 24) | 267 |
| Notes to Poems | 269 |
| Notes to "Mirrors and Masks" | 283 |
| Russian Table of Contents | 291 |
| Biographical Notes | 294 |
